I've had my Kapoosh for probably 5 years or more & it has worked great. I don't have expensive knives. I have mismatched sets that no normal knife block would accommodate for all of them & I don't have adequate drawer space & wasn't comfortable with a magnetic knife holder at the time. The Kapoosh holds lots of knives for me & I've never had any black plastic flecks on the knives. I am surprised by the people who have had these problems. Maybe your specific Kapoosh had a couple too many plastic rods or maybe your knives are made differently than mine. I've taken the plastic rods out with no problem, so maybe there's a few duds. I definitely recommend the product. I've given it as a gift. If you have a dud I'd exchange it & make sure it wasn't the specific unit you got. The only problem I've had is that I wish the space between my counter & upper cabinet was taller because when pulling a large knife out I have to scoot the Kapoosh out from under the cabinet to make room to get the knife out, but that's probably the result of our cabinet installer hanging the upper cabinets too low!

The Kapoosh holds lots of knives for me & I've never had any black plastic flecks on the knives. I am surprised by the people who have had these problems. Maybe your specific Kapoosh had a couple too many plastic rods or maybe your knives are made differently than mine.

I just returned a second Kapoosh. I should be clear about the black plastic flecks - they were not there before I inserted the knife. First knife was okay, but putting the second knife in there (it was already quite tightly compacted) shaved off plastic from the rods. Every subsequent blade removal and insertion shaves off additional plastic from the rods.

I've never heard so much whining about a product that solves the storage of knives! Black flakes on the blade? No airflow? What? I've been using mine for a couple three years and it is great. I always put the knives away dry and if you angle them in there is no exposed blade (or a minimal amount ). I also have my 5 inch cleaver in there as well!

I gave up on knife blocks altogether. I picked up a magnetized strip from IKEA, that holds all 10 of my kitchen knives, from chefs knives to paring knives. Blades don't touch, it's clean, and it takes no counter space since it's mounted on the wall.

My Kapoosh knife-block fell apart this morning. (The smaller block seperated from the large one). Although I thought it was a great idea at the time of purchase, it tended to fall over with the weight of knives.

Does anyone know where to get a replacement plastic block for a model 650? I have had this knife block for more than 5 years and have had many of the plastic rods bend over restricting use in that area of the block. I have trimmed (pulled) out most of the defective rods, but think a replacement part is in order to restore the whole storage area. I post this question because I can not locate any of my original paperwork.

As a followup to my post yesterday, I contacted the Kapoosh factory service rep (Taylor at 800.821.7849) and asked about obtaining a new plastic rod block for my Kapoosh 650. She informed me that there is NO replacement available from them (ARY, Inc. is the OEM). She went on to describe how to trim (pull) out the bent rods and told me this is the only fix short of buying a new block. So, if you think you will be able to get a replacement plastic rod block from the factory, rethink that, you really can't -- there is NO factory support. I'm not sure why she is the Kapoosh rep in that case. In any event, I will be looking into a magnetic strip in the future. From the comments here they seem to be the "old standby".

Not recommended? I beg to differ. So one-quarter inch of blade on an 8-inch knife is exposed? Oh how dangerous! Look before you grab ANY knife held by whatever type of holder. No airflow because the bottom is solid? There's hardly any airflow with a solid wood block either. Bits of plastic on the blade when removed require a quick rinse? I always rinse any knife blade before using however it has been stored. A very nit-picky review leads to a "not recommended"? Hardly!

We've had our block for a few years and have really jammed in the knives. Finally the sides came apart. Since the guts are fine, I like the suggestion of finding a new container for holding them. Hope we can find one! This is the only thing that worked for all the knives we had.